Soper in London for Royal Wedding

On  Friday, 29 April 2011, I will be amongst the well wishers gathered outside Westminster Abbey in London to celebrate the wedding of HRH Prince William of Wales and Miss Kate Middleton. I will be travelling from Edinburgh to London with a former classmate of Prince William’s from St. Andrew’s University and staying with another good friend of mine in London! It should be very exciting to be part of such a monumental event!

Keith Drake, a family friend who has since passed away, reminisced about standing outside Westminster during the Coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth II on a sunny Thursday, 2 June 1953. Drake was in the military, stationed in Germany and had been granted leave to attend the historic event. Mr. Drake always said that if I was in Great Britain for a Coronation or a Royal wedding to not miss the opportunity to witness the fanfare, as it is a historical occasion and an overall exciting celebratory event.

It is expected up to 600,000 well wishers will be gathered along the route from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey and an estimated two billion people will be viewing the wedding live via Internet, radio, or television broadcasts. The Royal wedding is slated to be the most-watched event in television history, topping the 1963 funeral of President John F. Kennedy, the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969, and the marriage of HRH Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, along with the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997, the 2006 World Cup finals between Italy and France, and the opening of the 2008 summer Olympic Games in Beijing.

There will be 2,000 guests inside the Westminster Abbey, with only a couple hundred having a direct view of the nave, where the nuptials are to be exchanged. As the marriage is likely to produce an heir to the Throne, delegates from the 54 Commonwealth Countries who recognize the Monarch will be in attendance. Legally, according to §2 of the Union with England Act 1707, only heirs of Princess Sophia Electoress, who are protestant, may succeed to the Throne, thus the marriage is very appropriate in being a public event and witnessed by many.

England and Scotland have shared the same monarch since the Union of the Crowns in 1603, when King James VI of Scotland inherited the English Throne from his cousin Queen Elizabeth I, who produced no heir. Thus King James VI of Scotland became known as King James I of the United Kingdom. Politically the governments of England and Scotland did not merge until 1707, when the two parliaments dissolved and re-emerged as the Parliament of Great Britain.[1]
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[1] Mayfield, J. 'Former local to attend Royal Wedding' Colorado Radio 25 April 2011 <http://coloradoradio.com/2011/04/25/former-local-to-attend-royal-wedding/> accessed 25 April 2011